Staten Island lad battled leukemia with every ounce of his being

At 7, Nicholas J. Bottiglieri cannonballed off a diving board into a swimming pool as if it were nothing.

At 8½, he was popping wheelies on his dirt bike like a professional motor-cross rider.

And at 10, he declined a hospital gurney and hopped onto an operating table himself, enduring stem-cell transplant surgery with the stoicism that was characteristic of his brief life.

"He was brave through it all," said his mother, Mary (Socci) Ferrera. "He would say to me, 'Who's going to pick Joseph [Nicholas' little brother] up from the school bus stop?' And two weeks ago, he made breakfast for his sister, Annie. It was her birthday."

Ten-year-old Nicholas died yesterday in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia after a 30-month battle with childhood leukemia. He would have turned 11 on June 19.

He lived his entire life in Westerleigh, where he was a student at El-Bethel Christian Academy. After a time at St. John's Lutheran School in Port Richmond, he was back in Westerleigh at PS 30. Known to family and friends as Nicky, he was an honor roll student.

Nicholas played basketball for a Holy Family R.C. Church CYO team and baseball in the Westerleigh Little League. His position was catcher. He was an avid fan of the Yankees and the football Giants.

Nicholas, who dreamed of becoming a professional motor-cross rider, was always an active child, especially in the water. He loved to swim in his Aunt Lisa's pool.

But near the end of 2005, he became inexplicably tired. He was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia that December.

Nicholas began chemotherapy right away. His brothers, Joseph and Andrew, and a cousin, Vincent, shaved their heads in solidarity.

"As he was losing his hair, I wanted him to feel comfortable," said Andrew, 22, who continued to shave his head bald throughout his younger brother's illness.

By the end of January 2005, after an intense round of chemotherapy, Nicholas went into remission. But in June 2007, his pain and fever returned. A bone marrow biopsy confirmed the leukemia was back.

Nicholas endured an even more intense series of chemotherapy sessions.

"He was an old soul," said his aunt, Cheryl Wheeler. "He would say things you wouldn't expect to come out of a 10-year-old's mouth. He knew his medications. He knew when he was supposed to get what. He knew what painkiller worked better."

For the next several months, the little boy with the teddy bear build was in and out of the hospital. That fall, his family, along with Son Rise Faith Church in Bulls Head, hosted a fund-raiser to collect donations for treatments. The party in the Excelsior Grand drew 350 people.

The family began preparing for stem-cell transplant surgery, a procedure similar to a bone-marrow transplant. Joseph, his 9-year-old-brother, was a perfect match.

The surgery appeared to go extremely well. "He started producing his own cells. The doctors were amazed that it happened within two weeks after the transplant," said his brother, Anthony, 28.

By mid-February, Nicholas was home. And then April 4, during a routine post-surgery checkup, the doctors found the leukemia in his blood again.

"Throughout all the obstacles, he remained brave, thoughtful and selfless," said his mother. "He always cared for his family and wanted his mother by his side at every moment. He had a huge heart and made us all smile right to the very end."

In November 2006, the Make-A-Wish Foundation sent Nicholas and his entire family on a week-long Caribbean cruise. In December 2007, the Marty Lyons Foundation helped pay for Nicholas to go to Disney World in Florida. His favorite ride was the simulated Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. He loved the long, twisty slide in Disney's Coronato Springs Resort.

The Italian Welfare League "adopted" Nicholas and Joseph last Christmas, buying the boys a laptop computer and bags of gifts.

In addition to his mother, Mary; sisters, Annie and Andrea, and brothers, Joseph, Anthony and Andrew, surviving are his father, William Bottiglieri; his brothers, Billy, Mark and Daniel Bottiglieri, and his grandfathers, Anthony Socci and William Bottiglieri Sr.